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‘In solidarity with the Palestinians’: San Francisco teacher’s union officially endorses BDS

The text listed a litany of alleged Israeli war crimes, but did not mention rockets fired from Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups at civilian areas in Israel.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

San Francisco’s 6,200-member teachers’ union passed a resolution officially endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on Wednesday.

This marks the first time that an American K-12 public school educators’ union has embraced the movement.

Titled “Resolution in Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” the text lists a litany of alleged Israeli war crimes but does not mention rockets fired from Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups at civilian areas in Israel.

The resolution referenced the deaths of Palestinian children during the fighting, but failed to acknowledge the Israeli children killed in the conflict.

“The United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for Israel to end bombardment of Gaza and stop displacement at Sheikh Jarrah,” read the resolution, which was written before the ceasefire.

“As public school educators in the United States of America, we have a special responsibility to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people because of the 3.8 billion dollars annually that the U.S. government gives to Israel, thus directly using our tax dollars to fund apartheid and war crimes.”

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According to union president Susan Solomon, the resolution was “presented, discussed and debated” by assembly members.

Tempest Magazine, which describes itself as a “revolutionary socialist organizing project,” said the resolution had been introduced by an activist group within the union called the San Francisco Movement of Rank and File Educators (SFMORE).

According to Tempest, during the debate about the resolution, “speakers who argued in defense of Zionism were outnumbered, with four speaking against and about a dozen speaking in favor of the solidarity resolution with Palestine, mostly from SFMORE.”

Former union vice president and substitute teacher Linda Flack, who is Jewish, had offered an alternative resolution that expressed sympathy for families on both sides of the conflict and called on President Joe Biden to broker a ceasefire.

Flack’s “Zionist substitute resolution,” which was drafted in an attempt to “undermine efforts to pursue justice for Palestine” was swiftly shot down, Tempest reported.

San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council Executive Director Tyler Gregory responded by calling the resolution “inflammatory” and “factually inaccurate.”

“Rather than supporting all students whose families may be impacted by the conflict, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, and Arabs, this vote will contribute to Jewish students feeling unsafe and unwelcomed in San Francisco public schools,” he told the Jewish News of Northern California.

“We are committed to fighting for fair and inclusive policies to support Jews and other marginalized communities in public education.”